Chicago Fire Juniors Launch CFJ-Florida

The
Chicago Fire Soccer Club today announced the addition of the Chicago Fire
Juniors Florida to the club’s player development system. Established to serve
the Southwest Florida soccer market, CFJ-Florida becomes the eighth Fire
Juniors satellite program outside of the hub in Naperville, IL and the third
CFJ club to compete in the United Soccer Leagues Super-Y League.

CFJ-Florida
comes together with the union of Florida Premier Soccer Club, Gulf Coast Soccer
Academy and Southwest Florida United Soccer Academy and will begin placing
teams in the U13, U15, and U17 divisions of the USL Super Y-League in 2011.

“We’re
excited to bring the Chicago Fire program to
this area,” said CFJ-Florida ExecutiveDirector Mark Prizant. “Our coaches look forward to
working with the best players throughout the region and we view this program as
the best way to establish new and strong pathways to professional soccer in
Southwest Florida.”

“We’re ecstatic to welcome another extension of our club in Southwest Florida,”
said Chicago Fire Director of Player Development John Dorn. “We view the region
as an excellent growth market which provides unlimited opportunities both in
terms of player development and the added benefit of another warm-weather
market for our elite teams to visit during the winter months here in Chicago.
Our hope is that an initiative like this brings together as many great soccer
entities in the area as possible.”

Tryout
information for CFJ-Florida will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Please
stay tuned to www.chicagofirejuniorsflorida.com
for more information relating to the newest Chicago Fire Juniors club.

About the Chicago Fire Juniors

Established in 2004 as the official youth
soccer club of Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire, the Chicago Fire Juniors
have since expanded to include branches in Chicago land, Indiana, Michigan,
Mississippi and Louisiana. The eight clubs are now a key feature of the Chicago
Fire’s Player Development Pyramid. This “Pyramid” creates a progressive
developmental structure providing players with the unique opportunity to move
from introductory play, competitive play and elite youth play into academy
(Fire Academy U16 & U18) and development programs (PDL, NPSL, Super-20) –
finally, onto the Fire MLS team. The Chicago Fire Juniors, in association with
the Chicago Red Eleven of the women’s W-League, replicate the Player
Development Pyramid for females by providing young ladies the opportunity to
play at a high level. For more information on the Chicago Fire Juniors contact
Brian Roberts at (708) 496 6773 or broberts@chicago-fire.com.